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Tenement  Housing  Conditions 


Twentieth  Ward,  Chicago 


Report  of  Civics  Committee 


\  of 


Chicago  Woman's  Club 


1912 


^■■:  1-^*3 


To  THK  Chicago  Woman's  Cluh  : 

The  following  report  of  the  investigation  of  housing 
conditions  in  the  Twentieth  Ward  of  Chicago,  made  by  the 
Civics  Committee  of  the  Club  during  the  past  year,  is  re- 
spectfully submitted. 

The  object  of  the  inquiry  was  to  secure  accurate  and 
valuable  first-hand  information,  and  to  come  into  practical 
acquaintance  with  certain  administrative  departments  of 
the  city. 

A  combination  of  elements  made  the  undertaking  pos- 
sible :  the  generosity  of  the  Club,  the  aid  given  l:)y  Club 
departments,  the  contributions  of  individual  members  of 
the  committee  and  of  the  Club,  and  donations  made  by 
outside  organizations  interested  in  the  work.  For  these 
the  Civics  Committee  makes  grateful  acknowledgment. 

The  indispensable  factor,  however,  in  the  success  of 
the  undertaking  was  the  personality  of  the  investigator, 
Miss  Rose  Zwihilsky,  whose  command  of  the  half-dozen 
tongues  spoken  in  the  district  studied,  united  with  sym- 
pathy, tact,  and  a  scientific  attitude,  comprised  an  equip- 
ment without  which  a  thorough  and  trustworthy  investi- 
gation of  this  kind  would  have  been  impossible. 

The   work   was   carried  on   for  a  period  of  eight   and 

one-half  months  during  the  year  1911-12.     As  the  present 

Prule  of  the  City  Health  Department  limits  the  wearing  of 

-+-  ofticial  stars  to  those  regularly  employed  by  the  city,  our 

^.  investigator  conducted  her  inquiry  without  this  desirable 

aid,  yet  she  was  refused  admittance  to  premises   in   only 

'.    one   instance,   though    in   another  the   very   danger  of   the 

'-'     environment    forbade   her   to    enter.      At   times   the    chair- 

-^-    man  of  the  committee  accompanied  the  investigator  on  her 

tours,  and  the  committee  kept  in  close  touch  with  the  work 

through    frequent    detailed    reports    and    by    attending    to 

cases  of  personal   relief. 

Facts  obtained,  showing  vital  living  conditions,  were 
recorded  upon  tabulated  cards,  one  to  each  house  visited. 


0*00 


with  explanations  on  the  back  often  of  tragic  interest. 
All  this  material,  together  with  copies  of  records  of  city 
bureaus  showing  action  upon  complaints  lodged  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  investigation,  are  on  file  in  the  ofBce  of  the 
\\'oman's  Club   for  reference  by  any  one  interested. 


This  work  of  investigation  and  relief  was  not  under- 
taken to  amass  newer  or  more  detailed  facts  than  had  been 
gathered  in  previous  investigations  along  the  same  line. 
It  was  rather  prompted  by  the  steady  increase  in  housing 
evils,  notwithstanding  past  efforts  to  check  them,  and  from 
a  resolve  that  such  efforts  should  not  have  been  in  vain, 
and  a  conviction  that  the  energies  of  social  organizations, 
however  slight  by  themselves,  should  continue  to  be  put 
forth  persistently  and  unitedly  until  tenement  evils  should 
be  abated,  and  the  slum  wiped  out. 

This  aim  is  not  impracticable.  Within  a  very  few 
years  great  improvements  in  building  and  sanitary  laws 
have  been  made  in  Chicago.  Indeed  if  all  the  buildings 
and  houses  now  standing  conformed  to  these  modern 
codes,  there  would  now  be  light  and  air  for  the  poorest  of 
our  population. 

Consequently  the  question  before  the  Civics  Commit- 
tee was.  To  what  extent  are  these  laws  and  ordinances  en- 
forced, and  if  they  are  not  enforced,  what  is  the  reason? 
And  again  what  can  this  committee  and  what  can  the 
Woman's  Club  do  to  secure  their  enforcement? 

Half  the  time  spent  would  have  sufficed  to  answer 
these  questions.  But  the  value  of  an  extended  inquiry  for 
eight  and  a  half  months  was  shown  in  securing  through 
municipal  agency  relief  for  numerous  grievances  other- 
wise unattended  to,  and  also  in  the  extent  to  which  the  city 
responded  when  appealed  to ;  and  this  answered  part  of  our 
main   question. 

The  district  chosen  for  study  was  that  part  of  the 
Twentieth  Ward  lying  between  Clinton  and  Morgan 
streets  and  extending  north  and  south  between  Taylor  and 
Sixteenth  streets,  which  includes  the  heart  of  the  Ghetto. 

Here  the  typical  dwelling  is  the  dilapidated  frame 
house  originally  built  for  one  family  and  now  partitioned 
up  to  contain  from  three  to  six  families.  This  compres- 
sion is  usually  aggravated  by  the  presence  of  a  still  older 
structure  pushed  back  on  the  lot  forming  a  rear  tenement 
more  unlivable  and  more  lived  in  than  the  front  building. 
Here  and  there  is  the  later  solid  tenement,  worse  because 
more  permanent  and  erected  before  the  enactment  of  the 
present  ordinances  for  insuring  light  and  air.  These  build- 
ings are  monuments  to  the  unhindered  readiness  of  some 
landlords  to  capitalize  misery  and  disease. 


Tenements  in  this  districts  are  often  soiig-ht  because  of 
their  dilajiidation ;  and  the  poorer  the  tenant  the  more 
welcome  is  their  dilapidation.  Many  tenants,  as  the  in- 
quiry revealed,  object  to  improvements  because  of  the  sure 
raise  in  rent.  Poverty  also  tempts  the  tenant  to  share  his 
rent  with  lodgers  to  the  limit.  Immigrants,  empty  handed, 
follow  the  trail  unerringly  to  the  cheapest  quarters  in 
their  national  colonies,  pouring  in  continually  u])()n  the 
same  locality. 

Through  this  district,  tilled  cliiefl}'  with  Jews  and 
Italians,  with  some  Bohemians,  Lithuanians  and  other  late 
arrivals,  the  investigator  made  house  to  house  visits,  re- 
cording housing  facts,  applying  herself  to  the  human  prob- 
lem and  appealing  to  the  city  to  remedy  civic  ills  discov- 
ered. In  this  way  useful  information  was  collected,  a  bit 
of  friendly  help  offered  to  the  sorely  needy,  and  the  activity 
of  city  l)ureaus  assisted,  perhaps,  stimulated.  Grimy  doors 
to  gloomier  abodes  here  opened  to  her.  Suspicion  of  her 
mission  yielded  to  confidence  that  revealed  the  human  as 
well  as  civic  problem.  This  opportunity  called  out  many 
a  lesson  in  domestic  sanitation,  which  had  the  advantage 
of  being  adapted  specifically  to  the  case  in  hand,  and  of 
reaching  women  whose  lack  of  English  or  whose  home 
obligations  deprived  them  of  the  help  offered  by  social 
settlements.  Hundreds  of  such  women  fall  into  apathetic 
slovenliness,  which  drags  heavily  upon  the  overtaxed 
health  and  cleaning  bureaus  of  the  city,  from  sheer  con- 
fusion and  sense  of  helplessness  in  a  strange  land. 

'^  To  teach  the  house-mother  to  heed  the  garbage  man's 
bell,  to  remove  food  from  the  table  between  meals,  to  put 
refuse  out  of  baby's  reach,  to  find  a  hospital  for  a  sick 
working  girl,  free  milk  for  the  pedlar's  blue  children,  coal 
for  the  sick  man's  family  found  fireless  and  huddled  in  bed 
on  a  winter  day,  and  clothing  for  the  gypsy's  bangle- 
strewn  but  naked  offspring,  perhaps  work  for  some  mem- 
ber,— this  only  hints  at  the  human  phase  of  the  work  which 
served  as  a  substitute  for  the  coveted  official  star. 

A  table  will  be  given  later  showing  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  cases  in  which  serious  distress  found  help  in 
philanthropic  or  social  institutions  appealed  to. 

The  privilege  of  entering  into  conversation,  which 
obviously  has  its  objection  in  case  of  a  city  inspector, 
brought  out  circumstances  and  past  events,  material  to 
intelligent  statement  of  a  situation. 

4^ 


y  Four  hundred  and  thirteen  buildings  and  premises 
were  thoroughly  examined.  No  specialized  or  technical 
attempt  was  made  in  this,  but  the  plain  provision  of  the 
sanitary  and  building  codes,  and  the  city  garbage  and  ash 
cleaning  rules  and  requirements  furnishing  guidance  and 
tests.  These  four  hundred  odd  buildings  were  found  to 
contain  seventeen  hundred  and  five  apartments,  and  to 
house  ten  thousand  and  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  per- 
sons. 

In  this  report  the  chief  and  apparent  evils  only  which 
enter  into  the  menace  of  the  slums  can  be  dwelt  upon. 

The  one  which  immediately  strikes  the  eye  and  assails 
the  nostrils  is  garbage.  The  wonderment  is,  how  people 
with  presumably  no  surplus  food  can  produce  such  quan- 
tities of  garbage.  Strewn  through  hallways,  scattered 
along  the  streets,  heaped  in  alleys  in  overflowing  pails  or 
piles — garbage  is  king. 

A  garbage  nuisance  on  the  premises  is  subject  to  the 
penalties  enforceable  by  the  Health  Department ;  on  streets 
and  alleys  it  is  referable  to  the  Bureau  of  Streets  and 
Alleys.     The  conditions,  inside  and  out,  can  be  best  and 


street   heaped   witli   rubbish   and  snow  eight  feet   high. 
5 


l)riefly  described  by  typical  notes  from  over  one  hundred 
complaints  lodged  with  these  departments  on  this  subject: 

Garbage  dumped  in   hall;  no  cans  nor  pails  supplied  by  land- 
lord. 

Alley   filled  with   foul   smelling   mud   a   foot   deep   bounded   on 
eacii   side  by  walls  of  garbage,   ashes   and   rubbish. 

Nine    families    throwing   all    household    waste    into    alley.      No 
cans  provided. 

Alley     in     horrible     condition     from     dumping    of    offal     from 
butcher  shops. 

No  garbage  cans,  not  even  a  box,  for  large  tenement. 

Awful    condition    in    alley.      Piles    of    decaying   garbage    from 
overturned  cans.     Stench  overpowering. 

Alley  itself  only  garbage  receptacle  for  tenants  of  five  build- 
ings who  throw  out  all  refuse. 

Manure  boxes  broken  and  coverless,  swarming  with  flies,  lin- 
ing alley. 

Alley   littered  with   manure  and   garbage   from   lack   of   boxes; 
oft'ensive  froin  dead  animal. 

Decayed  body  of  dog  lying   for  weeks   in   alley  opposite   rear 
entrance   of   house. 

Ash  and  garbage  collections,  at  two  or  three  weeks'  intervals; 
according  to   eight  tenants. 

Ashes  and   garbage   collected   once  a  week   or  less  often. 

Loads  of  ashes  and  refuse  lying  in  front  of  every  house,  blown 
about  by  wind.     Alley  at  rear  lined  up  with  garbage. 

Six    cans    for    twelve    families.      Cans    crowded    into    narrow 
little  hall   strewn  with  garbage  and   filth  and   swarming  with   flies. 

Hall     in     building    housing     one     hundred     people — a     disease 

breeder  from   garbage   filth-cans   never  well   emptied.     Yard   filled 
with   garbage,   rubbish,   dead   rats   and   one   dead   cat. 

It  should  be  said  that  every  complaint  sent  to  a  city 
bureau  was  received  with  unfailing-  courtesy.  Garbage 
complaints  brought  such  assurance  as  "have  notified  owner 
to  provide  cans,"  or  explaining  deplorable  street  and  alley 
conditions  by  delays  in  collection  caused  by  severe 
weather,  etc.  The  collector  also  maintains  that  no  sooner 
is  a  block  cleaned  than  a  window  flies  up  and  a  pail  of 
"swill"  flies  out  into  the  street.  The  menace  to  health  is 
great.  That  of  the  front  door  can  is  surpassed  by  the  hall 
can  with  its  countless  vermin  and  rat  invasions.  While 
permanent  reform  must  come  from  no  less  than  three 
sources — the  tenant,  the  landlord  and  the  city,  it  is  a  co- 
incidence that  a  few  weeks  after  the  committee  work  be- 

6 


gan,  waste  collections  from  the  district  almost  doubled; 
and  calls  came  from  residents  of  the  adjoining  ward  to 
clean  up  that  ward  also. 

\  Inside  the  old  dwellings,  sunken  from  rotted  found- 
ations, fitted  with  antiquated  plumbing,  darkened  by  sub- 
divisions, with  walls  defaced  and  begrimed,  plaster  falling 
and  roof  leaking,  it  is  difficult  to  specify  single  features 
for  improvement.  The  sink  with  its  decayed  trim  and 
often  leaky  pipes  dripping  upon  a  rat-hole  in  the  broken 
floor,  furnishes  a  definite  starting  point.  The  windows 
which  may  be  immovable  or  too  decayed  to  open,  or  are 
caulked  to  hold  the  heat,  afford  a  second  feature  for  munici- 
pal regulation.  If  the  dark,  disorderly  bedroom,  contain- 
ing as  many  beds  as  it  will  hold,  has  no  window,  it  also 
is  subject  to  official  order.  The  absolute  absence  of  sun- 
shine from  rooms,  where  children  are  obliged  to  be  pres- 
ent, and  many  other  roots  of  squalor  and  wretchedness, 
are  beyond  municipal   remedy  under  present  laws. 

Many  exceptions  were  found  to  this  condition,  but 
that  the  sketch  is  not  overdrawn  the  following  summary 
will  attest. 

This    table    shows    the    number    and    ground    of   com- 
plaints sent  to  the  Sanitary  Bureau  of  the  Health  Depart- 
ment : 
Number   of   houses   visited 413 

Subject   of  Complaints. 

Toilets     316 

Sinks     146 

Calcimining   necessary    213 

Defective    means    of   ventilation 231 

Filth    dangerous    to    health 60 

Repair    of   house    necessary    161 

Flats    having   entirely    dark    rooms 235 

Filth    in    yards     59 

Defective    plumbing     235 

Houses   unfit  for  habitation    9 

Total   complaints   to    Sanitary   Bureau 1666 

The  following  notes  from  these  complaints  show  more 
precisely  the  conditions  for  which  civic  aid  was  invoked: 

Sink  and  toilet  pipes  leaking  until  floors  were  rotted.  Bed 
room  of  children  so  defaced,  dark  and  filthy,  it  should  be  closed. 

Four   rear   rooms,   a   damp,   dark,   unventilated   den. 

Window  frames  too  decayed  to  open.  Court  outside  heaped 
up  with   rubbish. 

7 


Apnrtnieut    used    for    ehioken    slaughtering    (Described    in    notes    from 
coniiihiiuts). 

Kitclien  and  bed  rr^om  not  calcimined  for  two  years.  Toilet, 
used   by  two   families,   broken. 

Two  flats  in  rear  of  building  crowded  with  Italian  adults 
sleeping-  in  every  room.  One  water  closet  under  steps  without 
water. 

Every  flat  black  with  dirt.  Chicken  coop  in  second  hali. 
Smell  awful. 

Bed  room  window  opens  into  filthy  toilet  shed.  Boys  sleep 
in   room. 

Pipes  of  water  closet  l)ehind  grocery  clogged.  Yard  littered 
with  fecal  matter. 

Bed  room  containing  two  beds,  only  opening  being  into 
kitchen.     House  overrun  with  rats. 


Ceiling  plaster  falling.     Yard  toilet  pipes  broken. 

No  water  in  basement  toilets.  Basement  littered  with  toilet 
filth. 

Windowless  dark  closet  used  as  sleeping  room.  Other  sleep- 
ing rooms  dark. 

Four  story  building  with  two  totally  dark  rooms  in  every 
apartment.     All  rooms  gloomy.     No  iron  fire  escape. 

Yard  and  water  closet  vile  and  out  of  order;  rear  building, 
unlit    for   habitation,    used   as    shop    employing   four   women. 

Awful  dump  in  yard  and  basement;  decayed  floor  and  leak- 
ing pipes.  Rusty  sinks  full  of  bugs.  Vile  stench,  rats  in  num- 
bers, forty  people. 

Storing  and  washing  of  fish  barrels  in  yard,  to  use  for  pickles, 
causing  sickening  smells. 

Filthy  toilet  under  street  pavement,  used  by  public. 

Ten  families  in  one  building  using  six  toilets,  without  water 
for  four  weeks. 

Flats  dark,  airless  and  filled  with  stench  from  basement.  No 
yard;  alley  lined  with  disgusting  manure  boxes.  Ninety  people, 
fifty   of  them   children. 

Tenement  building  housing  twenty-eight  families  without 
water  in  any  toilet  during  whole  severe  weather.  Water  closets 
on  second  floor  frequently  inundated  from  toilet  bowls  on  third 
floor.  Rear  porches  and  stairways  heaped  high  with  ashes  and 
refuse. 

Building  containing  five  stores  and  several  stanas;  tenants 
using  sewer  in  basement  (where  fish,  vegetables,  fruit,  etc.,  are 
stored)   for  toilet  purposes. 

Huge  tenement  building  with  thirty  to  forty  occupants  living 
in   dark,   dirty  basement,  near  toilets  too  foul  to  approach. 

Lot  covered  by  two  buildings,  except  a  ten  foot  square  yard, 
filled  with  junk  and  filth.  Twelve  flats,  all  horrible.  Sixty  people, 
twenty-five  children.  Sickness  prevalent,  diphtheria  cases  in  hos- 
pital. Children  suffering  from  skin  irritation  caused  by  vermin 
and  filth. 

Three-room  apartment,  all  windows  sealed,  bed  room  with- 
out window,  all   surfaces  filthy  beyond  description. 

Two  adults  and  two  children  sleeping  in  dark  bed  room  con- 
taining 600  cu.  ft. 

Two-story  knitting  factory  with  women's  toilet  in  one  corner 
of  store  in  bad  repair.  Shocking  toilet  for  men  down  broken 
slippery  stairs. 

Basement  apartment,  all  rooms  dark  and  damp.  Bed  room 
of  mother  and  two  children  totally  dark.  Toilet  in  same  basement 
used  by  three  families,  most  of  time  without  water. 


One-room  basement  apartment,  used  also  as  doughnut  bakery. 
Bags  of  flour  piled  on  wet  rotted  floor,  oil  barrels,  jelly  pails, 
utensils,  ton  of  coal,  and  folding  bed  for  two,  all  in  one  dark, 
damp  den  with  front  window  full  of  doughnuts  for  sale. 


Kitchen   of  chicken  slaughtering  apartment. 

Family  of  eight  in  apartment  used  by  father  as  chicken 
slaughtering  place.  Clotted  blood  mixed  with  feathers  and  dirt 
deposited  everywhere  from  reeking  stairs  to  last  room.  Kitchen 
floor  deep  with  feathers.  Only  one  window  in  apartment  can  be 
opened.  Ceilings  seven  feet.  Tenant  claims  to  have  used  kitchen 
in   this  way  for  eight  j-ears. 

These  recitals  grow  monotonous  from  their  apparent 
similarity.  Yet  each  has  its  own  peculiarity.  A\'hen  fottr 
hundred  and  thirteen  houses  pile  up  sixteen  hundred  and 
sixty-si.x  violations  of  the  sanitary  ordinances  alone,  a 
sense  of  m(in(it(in\-   should  eive  wav  to  alarm.     A  volume 


10 


would  be  required  to  discribe  these  conditions  in  detail, 
and  their  evident  effect  upon  families  visited.  For  instance 
in  one  two-room  apartment,  never  reached  by  the  sun,  all 
three  children  of  the  family  were  tubercular,  while  neither 
parent  had  the  disease.  A  seventeen  year  old  boy,  with 
consumption,  was  found  sleeping  with  two  younger 
brothers;  a  father,  far  gone  with  the  disease,  slept  with 
his  small  children.  With  such  feeders  of  the  disease  as 
these  how  many  tuberculosis  institutes  could  take  care  of 
the  city's  white  plague,  and  of  what  avail  are  they? 

It  was  unusual  to  find  a  woman  in  these  homes  who 
did  not  complain  of  chronic  headache.  After  sealing  up 
what  windows  may  be  opened,  the  family  betakes  itself 
to  the  free  dispensary  in  the  vain  search  for  some  "cure." 
One  weakened  specimen  of  fatherhood,  tending  the  chil- 
dren in  a  basement  flat  while  the  mother  was  out  at  work, 
when  asked  if  the  bed  room  window  would  open,  replied 
he  did  not  know ;  he  had  never  tried.  In  another  basement, 
where  fifteen  adults  slept,  the  proposal  to  open  the  one 
window  was  objected  to  because  of  the  worse  smells  out- 
side. 

It  would  naturally  follow  from  the  environemnt  de- 
scribed that  a  train  of  personal  ills  and  misfortunes  would 
be  encountered  from  which  no  humane  endeavor  could 
withhold  a  helping  hand.  Sickness  quickly  eats  up  even 
small  margin  of  savings.  At  this  point,  and  the  Ghetto 
is  always  at  this  point,  the  community  at  large  takes  no- 
tice, and  willingly  supports  agencies  for  the  relief  of  suffer- 
ing which  in  large  part  is  the  consequence  of  the  stupidity 
or  neglect  of  the  city  itself. 

The  following  table  shows  the  extent  to  which  such 
agencies  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  helpless,  upon  appeal : 

County    agent     6 

Henry    Booth    Settlement    -H 

Maxwell    Settlement    12 

Jewish   Aid    16 

Social    Service    Nurse    22 

Infant   Welfare   department    7 

United    Charities     8 

Legal   Aid   Society    5 

Juvenile   Protective   Association    2 

Vocational   School    2 

Municipal  Tuberculosis   Institute    1 

Bureau,   Personal   Service    1 

Compulsory  Education   Bureau    1 

Woman's  Trade  Union  League   1 

Total 125 

11 


This  list  does  not  include  numerous  cases  in  which 
private  assistance  was  rendered.  It  shows,  however,  that 
bad  housing  conditions  like  chickens  come  home  to  roost. 

However,  all  efforts,  private  and  public,  to  care  for 
human  wrecks,  into  which  children  bc)rn  and  reared  in 
sunless,  airless  rooms  develop,  are  like  settling  the  bill 
for  human  lives  with  cash. 

To  return  now  to  the  mountain  with  our  pickax. 

If  the  garbage  can  is  a  serit)Us  menace  in  this  district 
the  toilet  is  equally  so.  With  the  arrival  of  winter  w^eather 
the  yard  hopper  closet  becomes  an  acute  feature.  Our 
two  hundred  and  forty-two  premises  inspected  after  winter 
set  in  there  found  two  hundred  and  thirty  yard  toilets. 
These  were  in  large  numbers  frozen  during  the  severe 
weather,  often  corroded  and,  in  fact,  as  unsanitary  as  the 
banished  vault.  To  this  crying  evil  is  to  be  added  the 
dangerous  one  of  the  use  of  the  same  toilet  by  several 
families.  In  the  above  number  of  premises  there  were 
four  hundred  and  sixty-seven  families  having  no  private 
toilet.  Two,  three,  four  and  sometimes  more  families  used 
the  same.  In  one  building  there  was  no  toilet  whatever, 
the  tenants  using  the  neighbors'  together  with  fcmr  other 
families. 

The  totals  of  this  examination  run  : 

Number    of    premises    inspected 242 

Numl)er  of  yard  toilets    230 

Number  of  families  without  private  toilet 467 

The  location  of  the  toilet  is  another  matter  demand- 
ing reform.  Cases  were  met  where  the  only  opening  from 
the  toilet  was  through  a  door  into  the  kitchen. 

A  basement  apartment  contained  a  toilet  used  1)}'  three 
families  in  close  proximity  to  bed  rooms. 

A  strange  apathy  and  ignorance  of  the  eff'ect  of  nox- 
ious air  seemed  to  abound.  In  addition  to  the  sealed-up 
exhalations  and  poisons  referred  to,  powerful  emissions 
of  gas  from  fixtures  out  of  repair  were  found  in  apartments 
where  not  a  window  could  be  opened. 

The  fact  that  two  hundred  and  thirty  buildings  had 
to  be  searched  to  find  twelve  bath  tul)s  does  not  mean  all 
it  seems  to,  for  there  are  free  baths  in  reach  of  the  district, 
which   are  frequented  by   many. 

12 


I!<'sl  nioiii  (if  lidiisi'  ((iiKli'iiiiit'il  tlirei-  tiuu's  Ijy  Sanitary  Buroau.  Flours 
sloping'  several  inelies  toward  middle.  Inside  bedroom,  uo  windows, 
two  double  beds.  Five  beds  in  one  room  witli  night  and  day  sleeping 
shifts.  Attic  filled  with  men  at  night  at  five  cents  a  "spot".  Man  found 
dead  in  building  during  winter.  No  clew.  Building  actually  closed  fol- 
lowing Civics  Committee's  complaint. 

The  crowding  feature  is  hard  for  an  tirdinary  investi- 
gation to  deal  with.  So  many  calculations  enter  into  an 
exact  statement  that  for  our  general  survey  only  a  few 
indicative  facts  were  noted.  The  population  previously 
mentioned  found  in  the  houses  visited  averaged  twenty- 
five  persons  to  the  building.  When  the  prevalent  type  of 
a  small  frame  house  is  considered,  this  average  is  seen  to 
be  high,  the  most  conspicuously  over-crowded  localities 
being  on  Liberty  and  Jefferson  streets,  particularly  the 
latter. 

The  amount  of  yard  space  also  bears  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  overcrowding,  and  tells  an  additional  tale  of  its 
own.     The  following-  is  the  situation  upon  this  point : 

Houses  with  none  or  ahnost  no  yards,  190  or  47%. 

Houses    with    less    than    half    yard    space    required    by    ordi- 
nances, 120  or  29%. 


13 


Houses  witli    required  yard   space,   but   full   of   rubbish,   40   or 
10%. 

Houses  with  j^ards  fairly  kept,  55  or  13%. 

This  shows  that  eighty-seven  per  cent  of  the  children, 
roughly  speaking,  mvist  take  their  chances  at  play  with 
the  horse  cart,  wagon,  truck,  street  car,  whirl  of  dust,  alley 
mud,  garbage  can,  manure  box  and  a  thousand  other  ob- 
structions, or  resort  to  the  old  mattress,  junk  pile,  accumu- 
lations of  filth  or  stagnant  pool  of  the  tiny  space  between 
the  front  and  rear  tenements,  foul  and  reeking  with  the 
damp,  black  deposit  of  years.  One  small  park  furnishes 
a  beautiful  pla}-  ground,  but  children  do  not  sleep  there, 
unfortunately.  The  rear  tenement  fronts  on  the  tiny  space 
described  aboAe  and  backs  on  the  alley  collections.  No 
wonder  that  the  probation  officer  finds  here  the  grist  that 
is  ground  steadily  through  the  juvenile  court. 

Apparent!}-,  so  far  as  sweeping  reform  is  concerned, 
an  earthquake  or  holocaust  seems  the  only  hope. 

Fire  danger  glares  from  every  subdivided  ramshackle 
structure  in  which  families  are  cooped  up  and  dependent 
upon  one  stairway  which  is  sure  to  be  narrow,  often  dark, 
and  as  often  unlighted  at  night.  The  large  tenement  is 
frequently  as  menacing.  One  four-story  brick  building 
housing  fifty  people  was  without  fire  escape  and  only  one 
egress.  This  fire  risk  is  great  so  long  as  houses  are  over- 
crowded. Fifty  complaints  of  insufticient  exits  were  made 
to  the  building  department.  One  rear  two-story  rookery 
used  as  a  feather  sorting  shop,  dangerous  for  human  occu- 
pancy, was  ordered  torn  down  the  day  following  the  send- 
ing of  the  complaint.  The  building  commissioners  records 
show  that  complaints  were  generally  followed  by  official 
orders  to  "provide  fire  escapes,"  "erect  additional  stairs,'' 
"make  stairs  safe,"  etc. 

Inasmuch  as  the  majority  of  law  infractions  were  re- 
ported to  the  Health  Department  and  were  appreciatively 
received  by  the  Sanitary  Bureau,  whose  official  inspectors 
were  practically  trailing  the  footsteps  of  the  committee 
investigator,  it  became  a  matter  of  inquiry  to  what  extent 
complaints  and  consequent  official  mandates  issued  to 
landlord  or  tenant,  accomplished  the  improveinent  needed. 
These  mandates  issued  out  by  the  hundreds  from  the 
Sanitary  Bureau,  and  in  a  most  gratifying  way. 

14 


A  second  inspection  to  ascertain  results  was  under- 
taken. Repeated  visits  to  a  single  building  were  not  a  new 
feature,  but  this  time  results  were  noted.  The  following 
table  condenses  the  results  of  the  committee's  efforts  in 
co-operation  with  those  of  the  Sanitary  Bureau : 

No.    of    houses    revisited 375 

Conditions  observed  upon  second  visit,  regarding  sub- 
jects of  previous  complaint. 

Improvements  Uuchaoged 
Improved  Peudiiig  or  Worse 

Toilets     312  156  61  95 

Sinks     145  41  22  82 

Calcimining    210  11  115  84 

Defec.   Ventilation    229  14  16  199 

Dangerous   Filth    59  25  13  21 

Repairs   Necessary    158  47  33  78 

Flats  with  dark  rooms... 232  3  29  200 

Filthy  Yards    56  21  7  28 

Defective  Plumbing   234  56  27  151 

Houses  unfit  for  hal)itation     9  2  0  7 

Totals 1644  376  323  945 

No  intelligent  citizen  of  Chicago  can  be  found  who  is 
not  proud  of  the  Health  Department  of  the  city  and  of  the 
character  of  its  officials  for  some  years  past.  This  knowl- 
edge and  the  cordial  co-operation  of  the  department  when 
called  upon  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  revelations  of 
the  figures  above  given. 

Certain  cases  met  with  swift,  sure  redress.  Where  a 
kitchen,  which  was  the  living  room  of  a  large  family  of 
children,  was  made  uninhabitable,  and  the  children  were 
evidently  suft'ering  from  the  wholesale  killing  of  chickens 
therein,  the  head  of  the  Sanitary  Bureau  himself  banished 
the  business  upon  a  moment's  notice.  Where  a  basement 
bakery  was  carried  on  amid  the  vilest  surroundings  an  order 
to  vacate  was  eft'ective.  y/^  /^/Ro^U    i/,\Off'>^M^  . 

Also  a  tenement  described  under  one  of  the  illustra- 
tions was  closed  with  the  third  effort  to  do  so.  A  base- 
ment described  in  the  complaint  notes,  in  which  the  dark 
bed  room  of  the  mother  and  children  was  in  deadly  prox- 
imity to  a  foul  closet,  was  closed  permanently. 

These  effective  strokes  do  not  render  of  less  moment 
the  fact  that  of  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-four  complaints 
sent  in,  and  the  places  revisited,  only  three  hundred  and 
seventy-six  improvements  were  found. 

15 


If  the  three  hundred  and  twenty-three  improvements 
pending  be  added,  the  showing  is  considerably  improved; 
yet  the  continuance  of  fifty-eight  per  cent  of  these  pro- 
hibited conditions,  in  spite  of  efforts  of  that  branch  of  the 
city  government  charged  with  abatement  of  the  evils  in 
question,  reveals  an  inherent  weakness  in  this  department 
for  which  no  health  officer  is  responsible,  1)ut  for  which  the 
city  as  a  whole  is  to  blame. 

The  figures  given  may  he  studied  for  their  full  mean- 
ing, without  further  extension  of  the  report. 

The  present  head  of  the  Health  Department  has  pro- 
claimed and  explained  the  organic  weakness  of  that  de- 
partment. 

So  long  as  this  state  of  the  law  exists  the  housing  evil 
will  flout  the  mandates  of  the  sanitary  bureau. 

What  is  to  be  done? 

One  step  toward  the  reform  of  the  law  will  be  taken 
when  societies  and  organizations,  having  good  housing  at 
heart,  will  form  a  central  organization  in  the  interests  of 
good  housing.  A  membership  of  delegates  from  those 
societies  and  interested  individuals,  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  disseminating  information  and  awakening  public  opin- 
ion, would  constitute  a  dvnamic  force  in  working  out  this 
reform. 

What  civic  ideal  could  be  more  inspiring  than  tliat  of 
comfortable,  healthful  homes  for  all  citizens  and  their  chil- 
dren. The  so-called  "City  Beautiful"  of  parks  and  orna- 
mental water  front,  and  b(~)ulevards  on  the  outside,  if 
achieved,  with  a  great  rotten  core  of  slums  teeming  with 
suffering  and  misfortune,  so  far  from  being  beautiful  would 
not  even  be  moral. 

Never  were  so  many  civic  and  social  organizations 
waking  to  the  importance  of  this  reform.  It  is  high  time 
to  co-ordinate  these  energies  and  turn  the  impulse  to  per- 
petual good  and  make  Chicago  in  its  homes  a  model  city. 


On  behalf  of 

The  Civics  Committke. 
;Mrs.  Edward  T.  Lee,  CJwiniian. 


36 


i«I' 


